My Snow Angel
by Fortune Lady Diviney
Summary: A chance meeting between Saber and the daughter of her former charge throws the grail war into a new and unexpected direction. Saber x Illya
1. A promise made long ago

My Snow Angel

Saber x Illya

Prologue: A promise made long ago

Berserker's massive axe-sword fell upon the city street with the force of a meteor, rending the earth itself asunder and launching dirt and debris into the cold night sky. Such a titanic blow was meant to end the life of the servant known in this life time as Saber, but her life would not end this night, as she deftly rolled to the side, barely avoiding the brunt of the gray giant's enormous weapon. Though she had survived the assult, Saber's body was bruised and beaten, her glorious armor bent and disfigured as if it was made from base tin. Her combat with the strongest of servants was taking its toll on her tiny frame.

"Saberrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" Her master Shirou called to his bruised and battered servant. Though Saber may have been the pinnacle of knighthood and unquestioned ruler of all Britain, her master saw her first and foremost as a woman. And, by his strict moral code handed to him by his father and tempered years of wanting to be a "defender of justice", a woman simply shouldn't put herself in such dangerous situations. He knew it was his duty to protect Saber and would go about it even if it meant risking his own precious life in the process. Without a second thought he dashed across the abandon Fuyuki street and towards the blade of the man mountain that was Berserker with reckless abandon. He would save this girl, even if it killed him. His sprint ended with a slight leap, one that took him directly in the path of the massive axe's wide swing. "This is how a hero should act..." He reassured himself as Berserker's attacked found home squarely in his back, breaking bones and rupturing organs in the process.

Saber could only watch as her master attempted such a foolish act, but her eyes were not fixed upon Shirou's shattered body, but rather on the small girl that stood behind the giant of a servant that was her foe this night. Her long, flowing, white hair and piercing red eyes lay upon her mind, a vague reminder of someone she had met long ago. "Irisviel..." Saber murmured, coughing up blood along with her words. The small girl stood before Saber as a grim reminder of her past failures and of the saintly woman who had died because of a single misjudgment. Even now, a decade removed from the incident in question, Irisviel's death still lay heavy on the King of Knights. She regretted more then a bit in her short life, but the death of that snowy-haired woman was among the things that would haunt her till the day she finally slid off the mortal coil and resigned herself to whatever fate the will of the world itself deemed fit for her. "Is that you...?" Her words floundered against the massive weight of Berserker's soul-shaking battle cry. That simply couldn't be but... Saber would have gasped if her body would have allowed it. Irisviel had a single child, she recalled silently. The girl before her, the master of servant Berserker, had to be that same child. The small girl she had promised to her mother she would protect with her very life. To see her as a rival master was troubling, to say the least.

Pushing such thoughts to the dark recesses of her mind, Saber attempted to stand. Working her will to stand once more against her body's desire to stay firmly bound to the earth below, Saber dug the blade of her sword into the ground, propping herself up just high enough to see the devastation wrought by the battle in which she had just taken part. The street around her lay in ruin, a broken landscape like those she had witnessed in her youth. Her master lay not far from her and in just as bad as condition as she herself was. Covered in blood, she would have thought Shirou dead had he not moved ever so slightly every few second. The battle had become a lost cause, they both now lie at the whim of a small girl and her enormous guardian.

And so the girl surveyed the destruction her servant had wrought, carefully taking in every blood detail of the blasted landscape that lay all around her. And then her gaze lingered, firmly affixed on the bloody body of servant Saber. A sense of nostalgia dance upon the surface of her mind, like faeries upon the head of a flower. She had seen this girl somewhere before, she just knew it! It was along time ago, and the memory was hazy, but she truly knew this valiant warrior from a time long past. She could order her servant to kill her and the stupid boy now, but doing so would quash any chance she may answer the many questions swirling in her head. "Berserker," she called with a raised hand. "We're leaving." The pair left, a massive man slowly plodding behind the tiny pixie of a girl he called master.

Shirou and Saber both breathed a collective sigh of relief, they would not die this day. So many questions remained for all involved, but, for now, being able to breath freely without the stench of death pervading their every breath was enough.


	2. Side Story 1: Bad End

The morning sun rose over Fuyuki City as it did every day, completely unhindered by the horrid conflict that had scarred the soul of the city itself. Though who had survived stood upon a cliff overlooking the very edge of Fuyuki City. A servant, her master, and a small girl, they were those who had carried the burden of the Grail War to it's conclusion. As the rays of a winter morning crested over the horizon and illuminated a new day, one among them begin to shine like rising sun at their backs. A servant of the sword, clad in gleaming armor and an elegant gown, she was the very embodiment of an age long past. Her face bore a warm smile laced with the knowledge that she had finally found her way in the world, no longer bound by her past, the Knight of Knights was finally read to accept the future she had put off for so very long. Turning her back on those she had grown to call friend, she bid goodbye to the modern age with a smile and wave of her delicate hand.

And as she did, the young girl dashed towards the transient spirit once called king and tugged with all her might on the hem of her flowing gown.

"Where do you think your going!" The Einzbern homunculus sobbed, unable to control her emotions any longer. Saber quickly turned to meet the tearful gaze of her master's elder sister. Locked gaze to gaze with the small, snowy-haired girl before her, Saber ascension halted for a moment, locked in the present age by a promise she had made twice upon a time.

"Illyasviel... The war is over, it is time I go and accept the fate History has leveled upon me."

"Bu...But you promised you'd always protect me and be by my side..." She yelled." YOU SAID THAT YOU LOVED ME!" Illya fell to her knees under the weight of the pain that lay on her body, mind, and soul, mussing her fancy clothing with the desecrated dirt of the Grail's holy ground in the process.

Saber knelt to Illya's, her gaze still firmly on crimson eyes, and entwined her lithe fingers with those of her young ward. "I will always love you and there is no one else in this time or any other that I care for more." Saber's words invoked the grace of a mother dealing with an obstinate child and the gentle caress one saved for those they loved most. "But I have to go; this is my destiny." Saber meant well, but there was no word nor action in all the world that could mend the Illya's broken heart.

With that, Saber's small frame began to fade into the cool morning air. As she did she stroked her love's pale face one last time. "I will always love you, Illyasivel. Please, never forget that; no matter how long you may live." Illya pushed her face deep into Saber's fading form, her tears staining her blue dress as if she had planned to send a piece of herself along with her beloved as she left for the eternal hereafter.

A moment later, Illya's tears finally found home in grass and dirt rather then fabric. Her beloved was gone, leaving only memories and lingering regret in her wake. The past two weeks had been the happiest of the young Einzbern's life, being along side the brother she never knew, his friends, and the girl she loved, life could not have been better. Now, to have a part of such an existence snatched away from under her, there were no words for the emotions that lay in the depth of her tiny heart.

"Hey... Let's go home, I'll make a nice breakfast and we can rest for awhile." Her older brother called, unsure how he could help.. Illya didn't budge from the spot from which Saber had disappeared.

"Just let me sit here for a few minutes, ok?" Illya spoke in monotone, all positive emotion drained from her voice.

"You got it."

Illya sat for a small while, her heart fixed on the woman she loved, her mind on what the infinite future held, and her back turned to her younger brother. The answer to the simple question of "What now?" would not come to her today, tomorrow, or any time in foreseeable future. All she could do was live and carry in her heart the memories of those precious weeks.

"I'm ready, let's go." Illya spoke emotionlessly as she rose from her seated position and followed Shirou into the misty morning of a cold winter day.


	3. A promise fulfilled

Illyasivel Von Einzbern was an impatient girl, having come from an ancient and rich family everything she could ever possibly want was handed to her on a , often literal, silver platter. Tended to by a small army of maids and other servants to say she was spoiled would be an understatement. But she was not an entirely happy girl, mistreated, used, and abused in the name of her family's thousand-year old dream, she was more a pawn in a grand game then an real human being. Having lived almost her entire life for the goals of others, having desires of her own was an oddity rather then the norm. That was the train of thought running through the current Grail vessel as she sat on her bed in a huff, quietly contemplating the events of the previous night.

"I could have killed them both right there." She murmured into the pillow clutched to her chest. "But I didn't, even though I would have been one step closer to winning the war." And kill them both then there, had she not been memorized by the site of the servant of the pair, a woman of knightly bearings who, despite her battered body, stood her ground even against the strongest of servants. Illya huffed. "Who the heck is that woman? I know I've seen her somewhere a long time ago." She wondered aloud.

Searching her memories produced blurry and distant images of her mother, father, and grand father speaking of some important matter and the eventual arrival in the Einzbern ancestral home of woman with blond hair and the same regal bearing as the batted servant from the night before. They looked similar, yes, but for the same servant to besummoned in two consecutive Grail Wars, while not entirely unheard of, was an exceedingly rare event. So, in other words, for the blond-haired servant to be one and the same as the woman who had met with her parent's a decade ago was possible, though high improbable. Illya silently cursed her own memory for not remembering such a moment in more detail, exhaling another annoyed sigh in the process. Wracking her brain for a while longer, no new information came to mind, frustrating the young homunculus to no end. "This is not working!" She screamed, tossing the pillow in her grip across the bedroom and careening into a nearby wall. If her own memory betrayed her, it was time to take matters into her own hands. She and Berserker had fought that girl and her master in the old part of Fuyuki, making it likely her master lived in that area. That, she thought, was enough to go on.

"I'm going out!" Illya yelled to her caretakers, a pair of maids made in much the same way as herself, as she grabbed her coat and sped off for down town Fuyuki and hopefully some answers regarding the girl who had so captivated her attention the night before.

It was midday by the time Illya finally reached her destination, as people scurried about doing errands or getting a bite to eat she looked for a place to sit and people watch. Eventually settling on a bench by the park, she plopped her self down and settled in for a long day of watching and waiting. With any luck, the girl's master would cross her path, making her job of solving the mystery of the blond-haired servant all that much easier. And she waited, and waited, and waited. No one of note had come by in hours. A dog had bitten her somewhere around hour two, and in the fourth some children had asked her to play with them. She had refused, giving them a nasty glare and a few sharp words in return for their precocious offer. It was in the mid afternoon, as the sun had begun to set on a cold February day that He finally arrived. Hair a bright shade of red and of average build he was the master of the girl whose identity vexed Illya Von Einzbern so very much. She rushed to his side, nearly toppling the youth and his many bags of groceries to the ground in the process.

"Hey there, Onii-chan." Illya said with a smile and a giggle. She had reason to sound happy, as all of her efforts had finally paid off. Good for her, but perhaps not so much for the master of Servant Saber.

The young man back peddled from in surprise and fear, almost instantly recognizing Illya as the girl who had nearly killed him the night before. "Whhhhy, are you here?!" He stammered. "Are you going to finish what you started last night?"

"Of course not. It would be very stupid of me to attack you in broad daylight, I just came to talk, that is all right, right Onii-chan?" Her voice rang of jovial intrigue.

"I guess, but what's so important that you came all the way out here just to talk to one of your enemies?" Shirou, the master of the blond-haired girl spoke as he sat beside the small snowy-haired girl.

"Wellll, I just want to meet with that servant of yours. I have a few questions that only she can answer." Illya sounded a bit sad, as her own memory had failed her, this was the only method available to her if she was ever to know the truth of what had happened ten years ago. "Could you do that for me, Onii-chan?" Her eyes like those of a small puppy dog and her voice set to the 10th degree of adorable, Illya brought out all of her tricks to secure Shirou's approval for her plan. Shirou thought for a moment, this little girl was dangerous in an extreme degree. One false move could land him firmly on the blunt end of her massive servant's stone ax. In this situation, refusing her request was just as dangerous as giving into it. In the end, it would be better to agree to this for now. At least this way he could meet with her with Saber at his side and help in case things went south.

"I have a few conditions on letting you meet with Saber." Shirou raised his hand to Illya's face, three fingers pointed towards the heavens as he counted out the terms of the deal. "First, I have be with at Saber's side during all of this. Second, if you try anything funny I reserve the right to get up at leave at any time. And third, I get to pick the meeting place. That all acceptable to you?" Illya quickly and vigorously nodded in agreement, she hadn't intended to pull any dirty tricks this time, she just wanted her burning questions answered.

"All right, Onii-chan! Where are we gonna meet?"

"How about here, there are a lot of people around most of the day and it's not far from my house. We can meet tomorrow after I get home from school."

"Ok, I'll see you then." Illya's smile was as bright as the sun reflecting off of pure snow. Almost blindingly cute to any who happened to gaze upon it. Even Shirou found himself caught off guard by the gentle cuteness of this strange girl. If he could imagine the perfect little sister, she would likely be a lot like Illya, but without the murderous intent, of course.

"See you then." Shirou answered as he gathered his things and walked away. He wondered if it was really a good idea to agree to meeting her again. But, as things stood, it was likely he didn't have another choice. He steeled his will quietly, preparing himself for the coming storm of having to explain the meeting to his stern servant.

"I'm home, Saber." Shirou spoke as he walked into the dining room of the Emiya manor.

"Welcome home Shirou, I assume dinner will be ready soon." Saber said in a direct way from her seated position before the dining room table.

"Of course, but there is something we need to talk about first."

"What is It, Shirou?" Saber said between sips of green tea.

"Well, Berserker's master invited us to a meeting tomorrow afternoon, I thought we should take her up on the offer because we might be able to talk things out rather than spark another bloody battle like last nights." Saber froze, the Einzbern master had laid heavily on her mind since the battle, causing her also to dredge up old memories of the fourth war in search of the connection between the past and present.

"Though it would be foolish to meet with another master in the open, if you do think this is necessary to win the grail I will do what I must." Saber's stern stance hid her interest in the meeting, so long ago she had promised a dying woman that she would protect her one and only daughter. She had failed that poor girl so badly, if the snowy-haired master was who Saber thought she was, this was may have been her only chance to remedy the mistakes she had made a decade ago.

"Sounds good, since that's settled I'll go make dinner. How does chicken and rice sound?" Saber nodded in the positive, her mind still firmly on the girl and the promise she had been the subject of so long ago.

As master and servant arrived in the busy shopping arcade the sun began its lazy accent over the horizon, marking the transition between day and night. As they approached the bench where the promised meeting was to be held, they found the progenitor of the meeting already sitting and waiting, kicking her feet back and forth in a happy rhythm.

"Hi there, Onii-chan and servant! I came early just to make sure you two weren't going to chicken out on me." Shirou smiled awkwardly, as the sly tone of Illya's voice sent a shiver down his spine. As the last time she had been in this mood she had threatened to kill him, it was a natural reaction. His servant, meanwhile, stared stoically at the small girl. As she did her mind overflowed with memories of a decade ago, of the war she had fought, of the woman she had failed, and the promise she had made. Though her face showed no signs of emotions, the weight of a decade's worth of memories weighed down her very soul.

"Illya, this is Saber." Shirou introduced the blond-haired woman as he took a seat beside the Einzbern master. "And Saber, this is Illya. She's promised not to do anything stupid so I think we should answer her questions for the time being." Saber remained unfazed by the situation at hand, but hearing Illya's name sent a wave of relief through her body. This little fairy of a girl was the same as the daughter of her prior master. She would finally be able to fulfill the promise she had made to her most precious of friends.

"Miss Illya, if it is fine with you I would like to get to the matter at hand as quickly as possible." Saber spoke, taking a seat on a bench parallel to Illya and Shirou's.

"Ok then!" Illya shouted while throwing her arms into the air. "I'll get to the point. A long time ago, when my mom and dad were still around, there was a blond-haired woman who stayed with us for a few days. What I want to know is..." Illya paused for a moment, directing the full power of her gaze upon Saber. "Are you and that woman the same person?"

"That's just silly!" Shirou interrupted. "How could Saber be staying with your parents? She's a servant, and unless I'm missing something, they only appear when a Grail War is going on."

"There was a Grail War going on when I was little, and my mom, dad, and a servant that looked just like yours were all involved. I'm sure of that." Illya former jovial personality was gone, replaced instead by a state of stoic introspection as she recounted her shrouded memories.

"Come on, Saber. Tell her she's wrong already." Shirou implored to his servant in a pleading tone. An aura of silence gripped the small playground, with nothing but the roar of the last remnants of the day's crowd sounding through the cold winter air. Saber wanted to speak, to tell this tiny girl who she knew her mother and that she would protect her always. But the world simply did not come. Instead she maintained her stoic gaze, hoping something would come to mind. "Saber?" Shirou gently nudged his servant, hoping to break her silent stupor in the process.

"I would like to speak with her in private, with your permission of course. I think Illya has proven herself worthy of trust, after all." In truth they had only been talking for a few moments, and nothing the small master had said or done could have justified Saber's trust in her. Rather it was Illya's link to her own past that tempered her trust.

"Um, all right. Just yell if anything happens, all right? I'm going to go shop around for a bit while you two talk." Shirou wandered off. Illya was far from being a threat without her servant at her side, and Saber was a strong woman, perfectly capable of acting on her own. And, if worse came to worse, there was always the command seals. Though he was nervous, if an alliance could be secured with Illya, it would make this whole Grail War mess a lot easier to hand. "_Good luck, Saber." _He thought as the two girls passed out of his field of vision.

"Now, to answer your question, Illya." Saber spoke, finally finding words for the sentiments she had held within her heart for the past decade. "You'd be correct in assuming I was present at Einzbern Castle for a time during the previous Grail War. Take that as you will." Illya's heart skipped a beat as Saber spoke. There was so many questions she had. About her father and mother and myriad other things, but she could only manage the simplest of statements in her state of shock.

"Do you think my mom and dad were good people?" Illya asked with her eyes wide as those of a small puppy.

Saber thought for a moment, her former master, the man known as the Magus Killer in many circles, was a cold-blooded mercenary with a warped sense of justice and honor that had caused her very blood to boil when he spoke. Not that she would tell a small child that. "They were." Saber half-lied.

Illya heard line after line about how awful her father was, how he had abandon her and the entire Einzbern family to run off to God knows where after failing the very mission he was hired to carry out. To believe her grandfather or this woman, it was a hard choice to make and not one that could be made lightly or in a short moment such as this. For now, she merely nodded with a smile. It was nice to hear such kind words in a time of war.

"And I promised someone very important to me that ,should we meet again, that I would always protect the girl named Illyasivel Von Einzbern. And, now that we've finally meet again, I intend to uphold that promise."

Abandon by those she loved most. Raised by a family who only cared for her as a tool. And put through hell in the name of an impossible dream, to hear someone, without irony or an ulterior motive, promise to protect her for all times set her heart aflutter at she gazed upon the servant known as Saber. With her back to the setting sun and her clothes and hair in immaculate condition, Illya could assign only one word to describe the King of Knights. "_Beautiful..._" She thought, to awestruck to speak such words. "Do you really mean that?"

"Of course," Saber smiled as she patted the youngest Einzbern on the head, messing her perfect silver hair in the process. "So long as you live, I will keep my promise."

"But what about the war, we're enemies." Illya spoke in a troubled way.

"I have spoken to Shirou about that, as long as you don't bring harm to us. I see no reason we need fight any longer. Is that acceptable?"

Illya thought long and hard. Agreeing meant giving up her family's dream, but losing the wonderful feeling that came from Saber's honeyed words. Her family's dream, she reasoned, was not her own. But rather something that came down upon her from above. To put herself in Saber's care, however, was a personal choice to be made by her and her alone. Though unsure of what repercussions it may bring, the warmth Saber brought to her heart won out, in the end.

"That will be fine, in exchange for a not attacking you I expect you to live up to the very letter of your word." Illya spoke as her heart raced at a fevered pace.

"From the day forth I shall be your knight, and so long as I live no harm will come to you, Milady." Saber took Illya's dainty hand, sealing her promise with a simple kiss. Bringing a bright blush to the small master's face.

"Aaaallll right then, I have to go back to my castle now! I'll talk to you soon! Goodbye!" Illyasivel dashed off, her heart beating at a mile a minute and her stomach rumbling as it was full of small winged insects. Though she did not know why Saber made her feel this way, she very well knew she liked it.

"Well, how did it go?" Shirou returned to his servant's side, bearing ice cream for the two of them.

"I would like to think it has been a fruitful meeting. I've secured a non-aggression pact with the Einzbern master. So long as we do not attack her, she will in turn leave us in peace."

"That's great! But I think Tohsaka will be a more than a bit mad we made an agreement like that after we turned her down just a few days ago."

"I will deal with such circumstances should they arise." Saber's voice was full of grim determination. Rin Tohsaka, friend she to her master she maybe, was the enemy and would be dealt with in a way befitting the title.


End file.
